Video game application state synchronization across multiple devices

ABSTRACT

Techniques for a method for automatically synchronizing application state of a video game across multiple devices are disclosed herein. The method includes running an instance of the video game application at a first electronic device, detecting a presence of a second electronic device based on a proximity of the second electronic device to the first electronic device, identifying an installation of another instance of the video game application on the second electronic device, saving a current state of play of the instance of the video game application running on the first electronic device and transmitting the application state data to the second electronic device. The application state data of the video game application enables another instance of the video game application to resume the current state of play of the video game application at the second electronic device.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/772,163, filed on Feb. 20, 2013, entitled “APPLICATION STATESYNCHRONIZATION ACROSS MULTIPLE DEVICES” and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/043,034, filed on Oct. 1, 2013, entitled “APPLICATION STATEBACKUP AND RESTORATION ACROSS MULTIPLE DEVICES”, both of which claim thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/708,794, filed onOct. 2, 2012, entitled “CLOUD COMPUTING INTEGRATED OPERATING SYSTEM”,which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

At least one embodiment of the present invention pertains to cloudcomputing, and more particularly, to automatic synchronization ofapplication states across multiple devices using cloud storage.

BACKGROUND

Application state data are data used to record the running status of acomputer application. One example of application state data is a gamesave for a game application. A game save is a piece of digitally storedinformation about the progress of a user operating the game application.The game save can be reloaded later, so that the user can continue wherehe stopped. The user instructs the game application to generate a gamesave (i.e. save the game) to prevent the loss of progress in the game,especially when he is interrupted or ending a game session.

Sharing game saves among users has been common for many years.Originally by swapping memory cards with game saves, users could helpeach other to unlock features in a game application. With the growingpopularity of the Internet, users start to upload their game saves fromtheir devices to Internet servers. By downloading a game save from anInternet server, a user can continue the progress of the game on thedevice on which he played the game or another device such as a computer,game console, or smart phone. However, to achieve the goal of continuingthe progress on another device, the user needs to deliberately instructthe device to save the game progress (i.e. game save) and to upload thegame save to a server or a memory card. Then the user needs to downloadthe game from the server or the memory card to the other device, andthen instructs the other device to load the game save. The whole processis tedious and requires many user interventions. Furthermore, theprocess only works for game applications that are specifically designedwith game saving functionalities.

SUMMARY

Techniques introduced here provide an automatic mechanism forsynchronizing application state across multiple devices. In accordancewith the techniques introduced here, a method includes steps running aninstance of a computer application at an electronic device, andautomatically determining a sync event that occurs in the electronicdevice. The sync event suggests a synchronization of application statedata and the application state data represent an application state ofthe computer application at the sync event. The method further includestransmitting the application state data of the computer application to astorage server in response to the sync event. The application state dataof the computer application enable another instance of the computerapplication to resume the application state at the sync event at anotherelectronic device.

The synchronization proceeds automatically on the background of theoperating system of the device and is transparent to the user as well asthe application. The user can stop operating on an instance of anapplication running on one device and resume another instance of theapplication running on another device at where he left off. Theapplication state synchronization is achieved at the operating systemlevel of the devices. There is no special treatment or design needed forthe computer application itself. Any computer application capable ofrunning on such an operating system can take advantage of theapplication state synchronization functionality.

In accordance with the techniques introduced here, therefore, a methodfor synchronizing application state across multiple devices based on theproximity of the devices to each other is provided. The method includesrunning an instance of a computer application at a first electronicdevice, where the first electronic device belongs to a group ofelectronic devices associated with a user. The method includes detectinga presence of a second electronic device based on a proximity of thesecond electronic device to the first electronic device, where thesecond electronic device belongs to the group of electronic devices.

The method includes identifying an installation of another instance ofthe computer application or another computer application similar to thecomputer application on the second electronic device. The method furtherincludes transmitting an application state data to the second electronicdevice, where the application state data is associated with the instanceof the computer application running at the first electronic device.

The application state data represents an application state of thecomputer application at the first electronic device at the detection ofthe presence of the second electronic device. The application state dataof the computer application enables another instance of the computerapplication at the second electronic device to resume running thecomputer application from the transmitted application state. Further,the transmission of the application state data is performed at abackground of an operating system of the first electronic device withoutany user intervention.

In accordance with the techniques introduced here, therefore, a methodfor synchronizing application state of a video game application acrossmultiple devices based on the proximity of the devices to each other isprovided. The method includes running an instance of the video gameapplication at a first electronic device, where the first electronicdevice belongs to a group of electronic devices associated with a user.The method includes detecting a presence of a second electronic devicebased on a proximity of the second electronic device to the firstelectronic device, where the second electronic device belongs to thegroup of electronic devices.

The method includes identifying an installation of another instance ofthe video game application or another video game application similar tothe video game application on the second electronic device. The methodincludes saving a current state of play of the instance of the videogame application running on the first electronic device. Saving of thecurrent state of play is performed by utilizing an in-game save featureincluded within the video game application, where the in-game savefeature saves an application state data representing the current stateof play of the instance of the video game application running on thefirst electronic device.

The method further includes transmitting the application state data tothe second electronic device, where the application state data of thevideo game application enables another instance of the video gameapplication to resume the current state of play of the video gameapplication at the second electronic device. Other aspects of thetechnology introduced here will be apparent from the accompanyingfigures and from the detailed description which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects, features and characteristics of the presentinvention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from astudy of the following detailed description in conjunction with theappended claims and drawings, all of which form a part of thisspecification. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system for application statesynchronization between electronic devices.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an application states synchronizationprocess across multiple electronic devices.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example operating system of an electronic device.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an application state data of a computerapplication collected by an operating system.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an application state synchronizationprocess based on a user defined synchronization scheme.

FIG. 6 is a high-level block diagram showing an example of thearchitecture of a computer server, which may represent any computerrunning the database management system described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

References in this specification to “an embodiment,” “one embodiment,”or the like, mean that the particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic being described is included in at least one embodiment ofthe present invention. Occurrences of such phrases in this specificationdo not all necessarily refer to the same embodiment, however.

A method of application state synchronization across devices isdescribed herein. For example, a user plays a game on his smart phone,and stops playing and turns off the screen of his smart phone. The stateof the game application is synchronized between his smart phone andother electronic devices via a cloud system. He can pick up his tabletcomputer and continue to play the game from where he left off. Thesynchronization is not necessarily directly triggered by a userintervention. For instance, the synchronization can be automaticallytriggered when the screen of the smart phone is turned off, or the usercloses the game on his smart phone. The synchronization proceedsautomatically on the background and is transparent to the user.Furthermore, the cloud system can analyze various information, includingdevice profile, user profile and user history, to determine state ofwhich application is to be synchronized and which device the state issynchronized to.

Another method of application state synchronization across devices basedon proximity of the devices to each other is described herein. A usermay own multiple electronic devices that together form a group ofdevices the user switches between to perform various tasks. Each devicebelonging to the group can be configured to share their location witheach other, either directly transmitting the information to each otheror storing the information in the cloud from where each of the devicescan access the information. The location information can include theidentity of the network connection a given device is connected to, ageo-location information of the given device, etc.

Each of the devices can utilize the location information to determinetheir proximity to the other devices in the group. For instance, whentwo devices of the group are both connected to a local area network(e.g., a home WiFi network) which requires the devices to be within acertain radius for the devices to be able to connect to the network, theconnection of the two devices to the local area network can be used toconclude that the devices are within a threshold proximity to performapplication state synchronization across each other.

The proximity analysis of any two given devices of the group of devicescan be carried out at either the devices themselves or in the cloud,where a server periodically (or in response to an action by the devices)perform the proximity analysis. Once a proximity of two devices has beendetected, a decision can be made whether to synchronize the applicationstate data across the two devices. The synchronization is notnecessarily directly triggered by a user intervention.

In some instances, a device usage pattern analysis of the user can beused to automatically determine whether to synchronize the applicationstate data across the two devices. The synchronization itself proceedsautomatically on the background and is transparent to the user. Forexample, if a user prefers to use an iPad every time the iPad isavailable, application state data from the user's iPhone can betransmitted and synchronized with the iPad whenever the iPad is in theproximity of the user's iPhone.

Other such device usage pattern analysis of the user (discussed later)can be utilized to further fine-tune when the application state data issynchronized amongst the group of devices in close proximity to eachother. Further, the synchronization of application state data can becarried out either directly from one device to another or through acloud system from where each of the devices can access the data asneeded.

The following example illustrates how the method of application statesynchronization across devices based on proximity can be utilized tosync state for a video game across devices. In the example, a user canplay a video game on his smart phone when on the road. When the userarrives home and connects the smart phone to the home WiFi network, thevarious electronic devices belonging to the user, e.g., user's tablet,smart phone, etc., can detect each other based on their respectivenetwork connection to the home WiFi network.

If the user has exhibited a tendency to use the tablet to play the videogame whenever the tablet was available to the user, then the state ofthe video game application is synchronized between the user's smartphone and the tablet. The synchronization can be performed eitherdirectly between the devices using the home WiFi network or via a cloudsystem. As discussed above, the synchronization is not necessarilydirectly triggered by a user intervention. The proximity of the devicesand the user's usage pattern can be periodically analyzed, either by thedevices or in the cloud system, to trigger the synchronization.

Any save feature in the video game that allows the user to save thecurrent state of play of the video game can be utilized to gather theapplication state data associated with the current state of play of thevideo game. By using such save features, the application state data canbe gathered without any specialized knowledge of the video game.

For example, many first-person shooter video games allows a player tosave the current state of play as the game is being played, allowing theplayer to resume play from the last saved state of play in the event theplayer dies in the game before finishing all the levels. The player willnot have to start playing the game again from level one. The informationassociated with the saved state of play is usually stored as log filesthat can be easily copied and replicated across other devices to allowthe player to resume playing the video game in anther device from thesaved state of play. The user can pick up the tablet computer andcontinue to play the game from where the user left off.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system for application statesynchronization between electronic devices. The system includes a cloudstorage service 110 configured to store state data for applications. Inone embodiment, the cloud storage service 110 can be a storage clusterhaving computer nodes interconnected with each other by a network. Thestorage cluster can communicate with other electronic devices via theInternet. The cloud storage service 110 contains storage nodes 112. Eachof the storage nodes 112 contains one or more processors 114 and storagedevices 116. The storage devices can include optical disk storage, RAM,ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, phase change memory, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tapes, magnetic disk storage or any other computer storagemedium which can be used to store the desired information.

A cloud synchronization interface 120 can also be included to receivedata to be stored in the cloud storage service. The cloudsynchronization interface 120 can include network communication hardwareand network connection logic to receive the information from electronicdevices. The network can be a local area network (LAN), wide areanetwork (WAN) or the Internet. The cloud synchronization interface 120may include a queuing mechanism to organize the received synchronizationdata to be stored in the cloud storage service 110. The cloudsynchronization interface 120 can communicate with the cloud storageservice 110 to send requests to the cloud storage service 110 forstoring application state data and retrieving data.

An electronic device 130 includes an operating system 132 to manage thehardware resources of the electronic device 130 and provide services forrunning computer applications 134. The computer application 134 storedin the electronic device 130 require the operating system 132 toproperly run on the device 130. The electronic device 130 can backupapplication states of the computer applications 134 to the cloud storageservice 110. The electronic device 130 includes at least one localstorage device 138 to store the computer applications, application data,and user data. The electronic device 130 can synchronize the applicationstate data with the cloud storage service 110 via the cloudsynchronization interface 120. The electronic device 130 or 140 can be adesktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, an automobilecomputer, a game console, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant,or other electronic devices capable of running computer applications, ascontemplated by a person having ordinary skill in the art.

The computer applications 134 stored in the electronic device 130 caninclude applications for general productivity and information retrieval,including email, calendar, contacts, and stock market and weatherinformation. The computer applications 134 can also include applicationsin other categories, such as mobile games, factory automation, GPS andlocation-based services, banking, order-tracking, ticket purchases orany other categories as contemplated by a person having ordinary skillin the art.

The operating system 132 of the electronic device 130 includes a statesynchronization module 136 to backup application state information fromthe local storage. The state synchronization module 136 can operate tokeep the application state data from the electronic device 130 insynchronization with the cloud storage service 110 and other devices.

Similarly, another electronic device 140 can also synchronize theapplication state with the cloud storage service 110. The electronicdevices 130 and 140 can synchronize the application states between eachother via the cloud storage service 110. For instance, the electronicdevice 130 can synchronize the application state of a computerapplication to the cloud storage service 110. The cloud storage service110 communicates with the electronic device 140 to know that theelectronic device 140 also contain this computer application and theapplication state of this computer application is not updated on theelectronic device 140. In turn, the cloud storage service 110 sends theapplication state data to the electronic device 140. Thus, theapplication state of this computer application is synchronized betweenthe electronic devices 130 and 140.

In one embodiment, the synchronization for backups from the electronicdevices 130 and 140 to the cloud storage service 110 may take place on aconfigurable periodic basis, such as an hour or a day. In other words,the synchronization is scheduled to take place on a periodic basis. Thescheduled synchronization can also check for updates that can be sentfrom the cloud storage service 110 to the electronic devices 130 and140.

Another type of synchronization can be a triggered when an event occurson the electronic device 130 or 140, and then the state synchronizationmodule can initialize the application state data synchronization withthe cloud storage service 110. The triggered synchronization does notneed the intervention from the user. For instance, a user turns off thescreen of the electronic device 130. The screen turning off event cantrigger an application state data synchronization with the cloud storageservice 110 as well as other electronic devices. However, the user doesnot need to specifically instruct the device to synchronize; the userdoes not even need to realize that the synchronization occurs.

In one embodiment, the sync event can be any of the following events:the screen of the electronic device being turned off, the instance ofthe computer application being closed, the instance of the computerapplication being paused, the instance of the computer applicationhaving been run continuously for a preconfigured period of time, theinstance of the computer application being switched by anotherapplication, the instance of the computer application being switchedfrom the foreground to a background of the operating system, a batterylevel of the electronic device being below a preconfigured value, theelectronic device turning off, the electronic device switching tostandby mode, a clock of the electronic device reaching a preconfiguredtime of day, and the electronic device being in a preconfigured location

In one embodiment, the synchronization can be a delta synchronizationwhere the electronic device 130 or 140 detects a change (i.e. delta) ofapplication state data and only the changed data or difference aresynchronized to the cloud storage device 110.

Any electronic device running an operating system having the statesynchronization module can initialize the application statesynchronization. In addition, the cloud storage service 110 can alsoinitialize the application state synchronization. In one embodiment, thecloud storage service 110 may analyze the electronic devices todetermine which device is to be synchronized and state data of whichapplication are to be synchronized.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an application states synchronizationprocess across multiple electronic devices. At step 205, a cloud storagesystem identifies a plurality of electronic devices capable ofsynchronizing application state data with the cloud storage system. Theelectronic devices may be capable of communicating with the cloudstorage system via a network, such as the Internet, a WiFi Network, or acellular phone network. At step 210, one of the identified electronicdevices runs an application.

At step 215, a sync event is determined to occur at the electronicdevice. The operating system of the electronic device automaticallydetermines the sync event, without the intervention from the user. Theuser does not specifically instruct the sync event. The user does noteven need to realize the sync event. There is no need for a sync button,a sync gesture, a sync menu item, or a sync command. In other words, theoperating system of the device makes the determination of a sync event.For instance, the operating system may recognize an event of the screenbeing turned off as a sync event. The operating system may alsorecognize an event of a running application being closed or beingswitched by another application as a sync event. The operating systemmay further recognize an event of a system standby as a sync event. Theoperating system of the device can determine other types of sync events,as contemplated by a person having ordinary skill in the art.

Once the operating detects a sync event, the operating system of theelectronic device uploads the application state data of the computerapplication onto the cloud storage system at step 220. The operatingsystem of the device may decide to immediately start uploading theapplication state data after the sync event, or start the upload acertain amount of time after the sync event. For instance, if theelectronic device detects that there is another electronic device of thesame user in a very close proximity, the operating system of the devicemay decide to start the upload immediately because of a high possibilitythat the user will start using the other device soon. In anotherembodiment, the electronic device may decide to start the upload at acertain time of day or at certain location. For instance, the electronicdevice may decide to start the upload at midnight 12AM and at the user'shome (determined by GPS location or WiFi location), so that the uploadof the application state data does not intervene with normal operationof the device.

In one embodiment, the developer of the computer application does notneed to specifically write any implementation for uploading theapplication state data. For example, there are no API calls embedded inthe computer application for the application state data. The statesynchronization module of the operating system is responsible formonitoring, collecting and uploading the application state data. In someembodiments, the state synchronization module compares the currentapplication state on the device and the application state already storedin the cloud storage service. If the current application state is newerthan the application state stored in the cloud storage service, thestate synchronization module determines a difference (i.e. delta)between the current application state data and the application statedata stored in the cloud storage service. In this way, the statesynchronization module only needs to upload the difference to the cloudstorage service. The cloud storage service is responsible forincorporating the difference into the application state data alreadystored.

At step 225, the cloud storage system performs an analysis on the deviceprofile, user profile and user history, to determine which device thestate is synchronized to. For instance, in one embodiment, the cloudstorage system determines the devices that the same user is using (e.g.the devices which have established the user's user account). In anotherembodiment, the analysis is based on usage pattern. For example, thecloud storage service can determine to synchronize the application stateto devices that the user has been frequently used during a specific timeperiod, e.g. a week. Or the cloud storage service can determine tosynchronize the application state to devices on which the user has beenrunning that computer application. In yet another embodiment, theanalysis is based on a proximity algorithm. For example, the cloudstorage service can determine to synchronize the application state todevices that are physically close to the device in step 210. Theproximity may be determined by GPS locations, WiFi network locations,cellular networking locations or the combination thereof. In stillanother embodiment, the analysis is based on the types of applicationsinstalled on the devices. For example, the cloud storage service candetermine to synchronize the application state to devices that haveinstances of that application installed, or devices that have similarapplications installed. Furthermore, the analysis can be determined by acombination of the above techniques, as well as any other device or userinformation as contemplated by a person having ordinary skill in theart.

The same types of analysis disclosed in the previous paragraph are usedin determining the priority of synchronization. For instance, if thereare application state data for multiple applications in the cloudstorage service to be synchronized. The cloud storage service maydetermine to synchronize the state data for one application because theuser has been frequently using that application during a recent timeperiod, e.g. a week. In one embodiment, the cloud storage servicedecides a priority list including a reference to the application statedata for the computer application, wherein the priority list regulatesthe order of transmitting the application state data for the computerapplication and data for other applications based on the analyzing ofthe user profile and the hardware profiles of electronic devices.

In some embodiments, the analysis is performed after the cloud storagesystem receives application state data from a device. In some otherembodiments, the analysis can be performed before the cloud storagesystem receives any application state data or before the sync eventoccurs.

At step 230, the cloud storage system sends the application state datato one or more devices that is identified by the analysis. Theidentified devices receive the application state data. Therefore, theinstances of the application running on the devices are synchronizedwith the most up-to-date state. A user can run an instance of theapplication on any of these devices and the instance of the applicationresumes from the most up-to-date state. In one embodiment, the cloudstorage system further sends an instruction to each of the identifieddevices to run an instance of the computer application by resuming theapplication state at the sync event at step 235.

In one embodiment, the application state data of a computer applicationmay include application memory data, application local storage data,hardware configuration data, and user account configuration data. Thestate synchronization module of the operating system is capable ofcollecting these data and uploading the data as included in theapplication state data to the cloud storage service. Based on theapplication state data, an operating system of another electronic devicecan recreate the same environment and status of the application on theother electronic device.

In some embodiments, the electronic devices are capable of synchronizingapplication state data between each other via a network, such as a WiFinetwork, Bluetooth network, or a cellular phone network. Each of theelectronic devices contains a network component configured to directlysynchronize the application state data with another electronic device.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example operating system of an electronic device,according to one embodiment. The operating system 300 includes a kernel304. The kernel 304 provides interfaces to hardware of the electronicdevice for the computer applications running on top of the kernel 304,and supervises and controls the computer applications. The kernel 304isolates the computer applications from the hardware. The kernel 304 mayinclude one or more intervening sources that can affect execution of acomputer application. In one embodiment, the kernel 304 includes anetwork I/O module 306, a file I/O module 308, multi-threading module310, user input 314, system interrupts 316, and shared memory access318.

A state synchronization module 330 runs on top of the kernel 304. Thestate synchronization module 330 monitors the information from theintervening sources of the kernel 304 and records state data accordingthe information. In the example of FIG. 3, a computer application 340includes a binary executable code 342 that can run on top of theoperating system 300. The computer application 340 can further includestatic and dynamic libraries 344 that are referenced by the binaryexecutable code 342 during application running. In one embodiment, thestate synchronization module 330 runs in a user space file system (e.g.FUSE) on top of a Linux kernel. In another embodiment, the statesynchronization module 330 runs in a kernel file system.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an application state data of a computerapplication collected by an operating system according to oneembodiment. The application state data 400 of a computer application mayinclude application memory data 402, application local storage data 404,hardware configuration data 406, and user account configuration data408. In some other embodiments, the application state data can be all ofor any combination of some of the fields 402, 404, 406 and 408. When thecomputer application is running, the state information in memory section(i.e. the application memory data 402) allocated for the application isbeing updated by the running application. The state synchronizationmodule of the operating system monitors the application memory data 402,and uploads the data to a cloud storage service in response to the syncevent. Furthermore, the computer application can update certain data ona local storage of the electronic device. The state synchronizationmodule of the operating system can include the application local storagedata 404 into the application state data 400. In some embodiments, theelectronic device includes a memory device, e.g. flash memory, as boththe memory and the local storage. Therefore, the application memory data402 and application local storage data 404 can be one section of datathat exists on the memory device of the electronic device.

The application state data 400 may further include hardwareconfiguration data 406. For instance, the state synchronization modulemay record the current device sound volume level and the screenbrightness level when the application is running. These device soundvolume level and the screen brightness level are recorded as part of thehardware configuration data 405 and will be uploaded to the cloudstorage service. Therefore, after another device is synchronized withthe application state data and starts to resume running the application,the other device automatically adjusts the sound volume level and screenbrightness level as on the previous device. Moreover, the applicationstate data 400 may include user account configuration data 408. The useraccount configuration data 408 may include the user's preferences andchoices regarding the computer application and the operating systemenvironment for running the computer application. For instance, the useraccount configuration data 408 may include information about the user'slanguage preference. Assuming the computer application is a gamesupporting both English and Chinese languages for user interface in thegame, the user has selected the English language as the preferredlanguage. The state synchronization module records the user's languagepreference as a part of the user account configuration data 408. Theuser account configuration data 408 is synchronized to another devicevia the cloud storage service. When the other device starts to resumerunning the application, the application will use the English languagefor the game interface, as indicated by the user account configurationdata 408.

In some embodiments, a user can define a synchronization scheme tocontrol the way how and when the synchronization process performs. FIG.5 illustrates an example of an application state synchronization processbased on a user defined synchronization scheme. At step 505, a cloudstorage service receives an instruction of a synchronization scheme froma user. The synchronization scheme includes rules of how and when thesynchronization process performs. For example, in one embodiment, thesynchronization scheme can define a synchronization rule between twoelectronic devices, a smart phone and a tablet computer, for applicationstate of a game application. The synchronization rule specifies that oneof the electronic devices start attempting to synchronize applicationstate to the other device, as soon as the game application being closedor the screen of the device being turned off.

Assuming the smart phone is the current device running the gameapplication, at step 510, the operating system of the smart phone checkswhether the game application is closed by the user. If the gameapplication is closed, the process continues to step 520. Otherwise, atstep 515 the operating system of the smart phone continues to checkwhether the screen of the smart phone is turned off. If the screen isturned off, the process continues to step 520. Otherwise, the processgoes back to check the status as in steps 510 and 520 in a predeterminedtime period.

At step 520, the smart phone uploads application state data of the gameapplication to the cloud storage system. The schedule of the uploadingcan depend on a type and a speed of a connection between the smart phoneand the could storage system. For instance the schedule can bedetermined so that the uploading is delayed to use a WiFi connection, toavoid the uploading using a cellular data connection (e.g. 3G or LTE).At step 525, the cloud storage system reads the synchronization schemedefined by the user. At step 530, the cloud storage system checkswhether the other device, i.e. the tablet computer, is currently beingconnected with the cloud storage system. If the tablet computer isconnected with the cloud storage system, the system sends theapplication state data to the tablet computer according to thesynchronization scheme at 535. Otherwise, the cloud storage systemcontinues to check the connection with the tablet computer on a periodicbasis.

At step 540, when the user starts to use the tablet computer, the tabletcomputer starts to run an instance of the game application by resumingthe application state recorded in the synchronized application statedata.

FIG. 6 is a high-level block diagram showing an example of thearchitecture of a computer, which may represent any electronic device orany server within a cloud storage service as described herein. Theserver 600 includes one or more processors 610 and memory 620 coupled toan interconnect 630. The interconnect 630 shown in FIG. 6 is anabstraction that represents any one or more separate physical buses,point to point connections, or both connected by appropriate bridges,adapters, or controllers. The interconnect 630, therefore, may include,for example, a system bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) busor PCI-Express bus, a HyperTransport or industry standard architecture(ISA) bus, a small computer system interface (SCSI) bus, a universalserial bus (USB), IIC (I2C) bus, or an Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 1394 bus, also called “Firewire”.

The processor(s) 610 is/are the central processing unit (CPU) of theserver 600 and, thus, control the overall operation of the server 600.In certain embodiments, the processor(s) 610 accomplish this byexecuting software or firmware stored in memory 620. The processor(s)610 may be, or may include, one or more programmable general-purpose orspecial-purpose microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs),programmable controllers, application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), trusted platform modules(TPMs), or the like, or a combination of such devices.

The memory 620 is or includes the main memory of the server 600. Thememory 620 represents any form of random access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), flash memory, or the like, or a combination of suchdevices. In use, the memory 620 may contain a code 670 containinginstructions according to the techniques disclosed herein.

Also connected to the processor(s) 610 through the interconnect 630 area network adapter 640 and a storage adapter 650. The network adapter 640provides the server 600 with the ability to communicate with remotedevices, over a network and may be, for example, an Ethernet adapter orFibre Channel adapter. The network adapter 640 may also provide theserver 600 with the ability to communicate with other computers. Thestorage adapter 650 allows the server 600 to access a persistentstorage, and may be, for example, a Fibre Channel adapter or SCSIadapter.

The code 670 stored in memory 620 may be implemented as software and/orfirmware to program the processor(s) 610 to carry out actions describedabove. In certain embodiments, such software or firmware may beinitially provided to the server 600 by downloading it from a remotesystem through the server 600 (e.g., via network adapter 640).

The techniques introduced herein can be implemented by, for example,programmable circuitry (e.g., one or more microprocessors) programmedwith software and/or firmware, or entirely in special-purpose hardwiredcircuitry, or in a combination of such forms. Special-purpose hardwiredcircuitry may be in the form of, for example, one or moreapplication-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logicdevices (PLDs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.

Software or firmware for use in implementing the techniques introducedhere may be stored on a machine-readable storage medium and may beexecuted by one or more general-purpose or special-purpose programmablemicroprocessors. A “machine-readable storage medium”, as the term isused herein, includes any mechanism that can store information in a formaccessible by a machine (a machine may be, for example, a computer,network device, cellular phone, personal digital assistant (PDA),manufacturing tool, any device with one or more processors, etc.). Forexample, a machine-accessible storage medium includesrecordable/non-recordable media (e.g., read-only memory (ROM); randomaccess memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media;flash memory devices; etc.), etc.

The term “logic”, as used herein, can include, for example, programmablecircuitry programmed with specific software and/or firmware,special-purpose hardwired circuitry, or a combination thereof.

In addition to the above mentioned examples, various other modificationsand alterations of the invention may be made without departing from theinvention. Accordingly, the above disclosure is not to be considered aslimiting and the appended claims are to be interpreted as encompassingthe true spirit and the entire scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising: runningan instance of a video game application at a first electronic device,wherein the first electronic device belongs to a group of electronicdevices associated with a user; detecting a presence of a secondelectronic device based on a proximity of the second electronic deviceto the first electronic device, the second electronic device belongingto the group of electronic devices; identifying an installation ofanother instance of the video game application or another video gameapplication similar to the video game application on the secondelectronic device; saving a current state of play of the instance of thevideo game application running on the first electronic device, thesaving of the current state of play being performed utilizing an in-gamesave feature included within the video game application, wherein thein-game save feature saves an application state data representing thecurrent state of play of the instance of the video game applicationrunning on the first electronic device; and transmitting the applicationstate data to the second electronic device, wherein the applicationstate data of the video game application enables another instance of thevideo game application to resume the current state of play of the videogame application at the second electronic device.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein detecting the presenceof the second electronic device based on the proximity of the secondelectronic device to the first electronic device further includes:identifying a local area network the first electronic device and thesecond electronic device are both connected to, the local area networkrequiring a minimum proximity between an access point of the network anda given electronic device to be able to connect to the local areanetwork, the proximity of the second electronic device to the firstelectronic device being determined as a function of the minimum requiredproximity.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein thelocal area network includes a WiFi network.
 4. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein identifying the installation of anotherinstance of the video game application or another video game applicationsimilar to the video game application on the second electronic devicefurther includes: receiving a list of computer applications installed onthe second electronic device, the received list of computer applicationsbeing provided by the second electronic device, the received list ofcomputer applications being stored in a storage server via a network,the received list of computer applications including identifiersassociated with one or more computer applications listed at the secondelectronic device; and comparing an identifier associated the video gameapplication with the corresponding identifiers of the one or morecomputer applications provided in the received list of computerapplications to identify the installation of another instance of thevideo game application or another video game application similar to thevideo game application on the second electronic device, wherein anothervideo game application similar to the video game application includes adifferent version of the video game application installed at the firstelectronic device.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein transmitting the application state data to the second electronicdevice further includes: periodically saving the current state of playof the video game utilizing the in-game save feature of the video gameapplication; periodically transmitting the saved application state datafrom the first electronic device to a storage server, the transmittedapplication state data being stored in the storage server, the storedapplication state data being periodically refreshed when a periodicaltransmission of the application state data is received from the firstelectronic device; and transmitting the stored application state data tothe second electronic device.
 6. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 5, wherein the first electronic device is capable of transmittingthe application state data to the storage server via a network.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the network includes theInternet, a WiFi network, or a cellular phone network.
 8. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the storage serverbelongs to a cloud storage service cluster.
 9. A computer-implementedmethod comprising: receiving a request to provide a list of computerapplications installed at a first electronic device, the request beingreceived after detection of the first electronic device's proximity to asecond electronic device, the first electronic device and the secondelectronic device belonging to a group of electronic devices associatedwith a user; providing the requested list of computer applications, therequested list of computer applications including identifiers associatedwith one or more computer applications listed at the first electronicdevice, wherein an identifier associated an instance of a video gameapplication running at the second electronic device is compared with thecorresponding identifiers of the one or more computer applicationsprovided in the received list of computer applications, the comparisonbeing performed to identify the installation of another instance of thevideo game application or another video game application similar to thevideo game application on the first electronic device; receiving anapplication state data from the second electronic device, theapplication state data being associated with the instance of the videogame application running at the second electronic device, theapplication state data representing a current state of play of theinstance of the video game application running at the second electronicdevice at the connection of the second electronic device to the localarea network; wherein the application state data of the video gameapplication enables another instance of the video game application atthe first electronic device to resume running the video game applicationfrom the current state of play.
 10. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 9, wherein detection of the first electronic device's proximity tothe second electronic device further includes: identifying a local areanetwork the first electronic device and the second electronic device areboth connected to, the local area network requiring a minimum proximitybetween an access point of the network and a given electronic device tobe able to connect to the local area network, the proximity of the firstelectronic device to the second electronic device being determined as afunction of the minimum required proximity.
 11. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 10, wherein the local area network includes a WiFinetwork.
 12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein theapplication state data received from the second electronic device isperiodically transmitted from the second electronic device to a storageserver, the periodical transmission further including savingperiodically the current state of play of the video game utilizing thein-game save feature of the video game application, the savedapplication state data being periodically transmitted from the secondelectronic device to the storage server, the stored application statedata being periodically refreshed when a periodical transmission of theapplication state data is received from the second electronic device,the stored application state data being transmitted to the firstelectronic device.
 13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12,wherein the periodical transmission of the application state dataincludes transmitting a difference between the application state data ofthe video game application and previously transmitted application statedata to the storage server.
 14. The computer-implemented method of claim12, wherein the second electronic device is capable of transmitting theapplication state data to the storage server via a network.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the network includesthe Internet, a WiFi network, or a cellular phone network.
 16. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the storage serverbelongs to a cloud storage service cluster.
 17. An electronic devicecomprising: a processor; a memory storing instructions which, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform aprocess including: running an instance of a video game application at afirst electronic device, wherein the first electronic device belongs toa group of electronic devices associated with a user; detecting apresence of a second electronic device based on a proximity of thesecond electronic device to the first electronic device, the secondelectronic device belonging to the group of electronic devices;identifying an installation of another instance of the video gameapplication or another video game application similar to the video gameapplication on the second electronic device; saving a current state ofplay of the instance of the video game application running on the firstelectronic device, the saving of the current state of play beingperformed utilizing an in-game save feature included within the videogame application, wherein the in-game save feature saves an applicationstate data representing the current state of play of the instance of thevideo game application running on the first electronic device; and anetwork component configured to transmit the application state data tothe second electronic device, wherein the application state data of thevideo game application enables another instance of the video gameapplication to resume the current state of play of the video gameapplication at the second electronic device.
 18. The electronic deviceof claim 17, wherein detecting the presence of the second electronicdevice based on the proximity of the second electronic device to thefirst electronic device further includes: identifying a local areanetwork the first electronic device and the second electronic device areboth connected to, the local area network requiring a minimum proximitybetween an access point of the network and a given electronic device tobe able to connect to the local area network, the proximity of thesecond electronic device to the first electronic device being determinedas a function of the minimum required proximity.
 19. The electronicdevice of claim 18, wherein the local area network includes a WiFinetwork.
 20. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein identifying theinstallation of another instance of the video game application oranother video game application similar to the video game application onthe second electronic device further includes: receiving a list ofcomputer applications installed on the second electronic device, thereceived list of computer applications being provided by the secondelectronic device, the received list of computer applications beingstored in a storage server via a network, the received list of computerapplications including identifiers associated with one or more computerapplications listed at the second electronic device; and comparing anidentifier associated the video game application with the correspondingidentifiers of the one or more computer applications provided in thereceived list of computer applications to identify the installation ofanother instance of the video game application or another video gameapplication similar to the video game application on the secondelectronic device, wherein another video game application similar to thevideo game application includes a different version of the video gameapplication installed at the first electronic device.
 21. The electronicdevice of claim 17, wherein transmitting the application state data tothe second electronic device further includes: periodically saving thecurrent state of play of the video game utilizing the in-game savefeature of the video game application; periodically transmitting thesaved application state data from the first electronic device to astorage server, the transmitted application state data being stored inthe storage server, the stored application state data being periodicallyrefreshed when a periodical transmission of the application state datais received from the first electronic device; and transmitting thestored application state data to the second electronic device.
 22. Theelectronic device of claim 21, wherein the periodical transmission ofthe application state data includes transmitting a difference betweenthe application state data of the video game application and previouslytransmitted application state data to the storage server.
 23. Theelectronic device of claim 21, wherein the first electronic device iscapable of transmitting the application state data to the storage servervia a network.
 24. The electronic device of claim 23, wherein thenetwork includes the Internet, a WiFi network, or a cellular phonenetwork.
 25. The electronic device of claim 23, wherein the storageserver belongs to a cloud storage service cluster.